Lies for the Liars
by KShade
Summary: "It's a long, lonely path that I've taken. I'll just start off with that. I mean, it's worth it, or so I was told, but I hate every moment where I'm faking. Does he know I'm just as much of a liar as he is? That everything is a fraud?" Erin is a double agent. She's using Dallas just as much as he's using her. What happens when the lies begin to fall apart? Title/rating may change.
1. The plot thickens

**Well, I kind of (admittedly) didn't need another story, but I couldn't resist. This is inspired by Driven Under by Seether. It's title may change, though it is tentatively **_**Lies for the Liars**_**, any better ideas people have would be amazing.**

_Erin_

It's a long, lonely path that I've taken. I'll just start off with that. I mean, it's worth it, or so I was told, but I hate every moment where I'm faking. Does he know I'm just as much of a liar as he is? That everything is a fraud? I'll admit, I wish he knew sometimes, just so it would be over. However, I have a purpose, and maybe if I mull it over, it'll eventually make sense.

It all started when Thanatos reported Neferet to the High Council. I can remember clearly the conversation she'd had with me, that night in her office, after we'd all returned to the House of Night.

I guess that's when it all went to hell.

Thanatos closed her drapes, looking around nervously at the meticulously closed and locked windows and then scurrying to check the doors. It was completely unlike the normally cool, calm High Priestess. I picked at my already chipped pink nail polish, wondering why she had summoned me, and praying that it was just for homework, or something. I had fallen a little behind on Vamp Soc, so it could be that. Call me crazy, but I was praying that she'd give me the condescending teacher speech and send me on my merry way.

"Thanatos, what's going on?" I asked nervously. I looked around, trying to meet the High Priestess's eyes.

"As you know, Neferet has left the building. The High council is revoking her position as High Priestess. What would you do if it were you, Erin? Would you still want to know what goes on in your enemies' lives? Maybe send in a spy?" Thanatos looked at me, then down at her desk to search for something. "And with how fractured our side of things is it won't be difficult for her to invade our circle." She remarked dryly.

"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked, "I'm not really in the best position to have the circle listen to me, anyways. They sort of took Shaunee's side," I explained, hating the bitter tone in my voice. Hating the bitter feeling I got whenever I thought about how everyone seemed to sympathise with Shaunee.

Thanatos smiled, pulling an envelope from her desk. "Because Neferet sees that. It's doubtless that she'll send someone after you, to try to use you as a source of information. But, we can use that. The High Council needs its own infiltrate, and you, Erin, are ideal," she explained.

In shock, I widened my eyes and stifled what I wanted to say, something to the effect of _are you insane!?_ "I think you got the wrong girl. I'm no spy, the best I can get you is gossip, and I doubt the High Council cares about that. Not to mention, Shaunee'll see right through it in a heartbeat. We're not twins anymore, but she knows me," I cut myself off from my babbling rant.

Thanatos handed me the envelope, and I opened it. There was a letter from Duantia, explaining the importance of my mission, which I skimmed, because it was seriously long, and used words I wasn't sure Damien could define, basically about how she was sorry it had come to this and about how she wished she had seen this earlier. The next page was my mission, and this was written by Alitheia, who I would be reporting to. I basically had to convince whoever Neferet's little infiltrate was that I had no clue what their ulterior motive was or 'fall for their ruse' to quote. Then, I had to find out what Neferet's little plan was and fire information off to Alitheia. Also, anything concrete I could get of her involvement with Darkness would be nice. But, I couldn't go near Neferet, or she'd read my mind, see my plan and kill me. Well, that was just _great_.

Then, I got to my cover story. I could keep my name, and my identity. That was a nice start. I couldn't associate with my friends, because my friends would get in the way of whatever my mission. They would try to keep me away from whoever I was trying to get info from. I was to use my falling out with Shaunee as an excuse to be 'looking for a new friend'. I was to tell no one of my mission.

"Why me?" I demanded apprehensively, balking at the idea of leaving my friends.

"It is not I who has chosen you nor Alitheia, it is Nyx, Erin. Nyx saw something in you, and told Alitheia."

I looked up at the ceiling, wondering why Nyx chose me. I prayed to her that she'd choose someone else. Unfortunately, Nyx isn't subject to the wishes of teenage girls. She chose me, and it doesn't matter whether the rest of us understand it.

I had to say it, despite the words condemning me "yeah, I'll do it."

Either way, I was condemned. One way I was condemned to a life off Nyx's path, the other way, I was condemned to a hard task on her path. Call me foolish, but I'd rather have the goddess on my side.

Thanatos smiled "may Nyx bless you for it." She seized the papers and held them in the flame of her candle, giving me a phone "Alitheia gave me this to give you. It has all her information in it already, password is your room number, you should change it to something safer."

The phone was a blackberry, sleek and black, with a lock screen picture of me and my friends when we'd travelled to Venice. I stifled a tear, knowing that for as long as this espionage lasted, I wouldn't have any true friends. It was Jack's carefree smile that gave me courage. Neferet had cost him his life, and us our friend. I was here to make her get what was coming to her.

"Now, I cannot know of this. Anyone other than you who knows is an enormous liability. I will erase my own memory of this." she put her palm to her forehead. "You will remember only that you did as Nyx asked of you." She said, and there was a rush of air that flowed around her. Her eyes went blank, and then snapped back to their normal sharpness.

"Erin, what are you doing here?" she asked

I shrugged "Damned if I know. _You _called me here." I replied, trying to sound nonchalant and downright bitchy, like I normally would.

"Erin, you shouldn't speak to a High Priestess like that." Thanatos reprimanded sharply. I turned and left, with a heavy heart. I went home, that day, enjoying my last moments as a normal Erin, with the people I cared about, but feeling the burning weight of the blackberry in my pocket, like a reminder that I had a mission.

**Well, this is sort of my version of Erin and Dallas's relationship… yeah, I'm insane.**


	2. When liar meets liar

**Well, this story has kind of been following me around, because I guess I have a thing for new sides to characters… I just started a post-Hidden story about Neferet that has the same basic idea, something about the character that the reader doesn't know (Check it out! It's called Fallen Priestess!)**

The next morning, I was dragged out of bet to go show Thanatos Neferet's press conference video. It was Damien who ran to wake me, because I was staying in a random other room, and Shaunee didn't know where I was. Of course, that's why I moved down here, but that was beside the point. Shaylin greeted me with a "Hey! Erin, your colours look really off, today. What's wrong?"

I squinted at her "Invasion of privacy," I snapped, turning to leave. Why did Shaylin have to get inside my head?

Shaylin wasn't going to be brushed off that easily. "No, Erin, wait up. What I'm seeing is important. Your colours are normally a silvery blue river-like colour, but now they're _wrong_ like someone dumped a bunch of chemicals in the water and they're sort of bubbling everywhere," she tried to explain

I narrowed my eyes at the red fledgling, wondering what the hell gave her the right to look inside my head "You think I don't know something's wrong? You don't think I can tell what's fucking with my own life!?" I demanded, hearing my voice shriek out the words harshly.

Shaylin backed up a little, "I didn't want to upset you, I just wanted to make sure you're okay," Shaylin explained.

I had two options fro how I could respond, I could confide in her, or I could lie through my teeth and start to get my cover story involved. Since, as of now, this was a matter of life and death for me, I chose the second option "Do I look okay?" I demanded, "although, it's not like anyone cares anymore, is it? Everyone likes Shaunee better anyways," I sniped, finally getting to vent and bitch about my problems. Maybe my spying will be therapeutic, because it'll give me some time away from everything.

Shaylin was gaping at me like I had three heads or something "Erin that's not true. A lot of people care about you-"

I interrupted her, wanting to give her something big to relay back to the circle, so they'd know I was splitting from them. I felt guilty at the way I was going to hurt them, but I was only doing what I had to do. "Right, right," I snapped sarcastically "Everyone cares! That's Disney movie bullshit, it doesn't work past age four. You need to grow the hell up!" I stormed toward the bus "now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bus to catch!"

The look of shock on Shaylin's face hurt a little, particularly knowing that it was going to hurt everyone that I was doing this. Again, I asked Nyx to reconsider choosing me. Nyx was no more subject to my whims than yesterday though.

"Maybe I was wrong. Maybe all that awful chemical crap was just who you really are bubbling to the surface," Shaylin replied. She didn't raise her voice, bus she said it with absolute confidence. The words stung, but I was glad she'd said them, believed them. It was the start of having everyone believe them.

On the bus, I sat alone, which did little for my already dour mood. I guess Shaylin's comment had gotten to me more than I wanted to let on, hell, more than I wanted it to.

Zoey and Aphrodite pierced the silence by having a conversation about how classes needed to go on, I smirked as Kramisha made a remark that if we're all the school has as normal, they were fucked. Then we broke into groups, Zoey, Stevie Rae and Aphrodite were going to Thanatos, Darius was going to Dragon's pyre and Rephaim was going to patrol. I had no clue what anyone else was doing.

"I think invoking your element is a really good idea, too, Stevie Rae. Damien, Shaunee, and Erin—you guys keep your elements close. If they can help strengthen or support, call on them. Just don't be totally obvious and…" Zoey trailed off. "No. That's wrong. If you need to use your element do be obvious." She didn't explain it in any way, so I was prepared to write it off as Zoey-logic, the less you think about it , the more sense it makes.

"I get your point, Z," Damien said. "It's about time the House of Night is aware that there are prodigious forces of good working on our side against all that Darkness." I liked Damien's explanation, though I was going to have to do the opposite. Since I was trying to come off as the weak link of the circle, I would only subtly invoke water.

"Prodigious means real big," Stevie Rae translated from Damien complicated-speak.

"We know what it means!" Kramisha insisted

"I didn't" I heard Shaunee say, and like a force of habit, I replied

"Me, neither". Why couldn't I shut up! I turned away and blushed, realizing that that somewhat ruined my work this morning. Two goddamned words were all it took to fuck things up real bad, and that appeared to be where things were destined to go.

Then, Zoey basically told us to split off into groups and do random whatever. We did as we were told, as per typical and of course, Shaunee and I were in the same group. I bet Zoey wanted us to become twins again. That couldn't happen. Because of my mission, and because, quite frankly, I wasn't sure we could ever be friends like we were before.

Me, Damien and Shaunee walked off, and I felt heavy hearted, knowing I was probably going to break their trust for… I don't know, the next however long this is going to take. "Damien, I think I should stay way away from the stables. Lenobia has had a massive overdose of fire lately." Shaunee finally broke our awkward silence

"That is a good point," Damien agreed. "It makes more sense for you to go over by Dragon's pyre. You'll be needed there soon." He looked like he was three seconds away from cracking. It must be heard for him to go to another funeral so soon after Jack's. I wanted to hug him, or do something to console him, but I had to keep my act going.

Shaunee's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I know, but it's not something I'm looking forward to." She looked almost as defeated as Damien did. This was hard for all of us. In times like these, friends should come together, not fall apart, like we were about to .

I forced myself to sound aloof, like I was talking about shoes "Just get into your element and it'll be easy." I said, nonchalantly. No one needed to see how upset I was or anything. Cold as ice. I was going to look and sound cold as ice, and ice didn't thaw for anything, or not this ice.

Shaunee gaped at me like I'd sprouted a third eye, or something equally messed up "nothing about Dragon's funeral will be easy, Erin. With or without my element." She snapped back, sounding as though she couldn't believe me.

_Cold as ice, Erin, _I reminded myself "I didn't mean easy easy," I glared at her a little, pretending to be hurt by her thinking that I was that insensitive. "I just meant that when you really get into your element other things don't bother you so much. But maybe you're just not that into your element." I made the obvious jibe at her. Damien looked uncomfortable watching us bicker.

"That's bullshit. My affinity for Fire isn't any less than yours for Water." She puffed up, reacting to my remark just like I knew she would. I still didn't like manipulating my friends, but it was easier knowing that I wouldn't have to redo this. Shaunee and I would certainly never be twin-like again after this.

I shrugged, still going with my cold as ice routine "Whatever. I was just trying to help you out. From now on I'll quit trying." Damien looked ready to either run away or pull us off each other when I whirled on him. "I'm gonna go to the stables. Lenobia will be glad to see water, and I don't have an issue with using my element." I said the last part with a superior tone to my voice, striding away, not to the stables, but to the fountain, where I could hide myself with my element and cry it all out. My fear, the way leaving my friends made me feel hollow, the way Dragon's death had freaked me out, everything.

I gave myself a few—maybe five or ten—minutes to cry and feel sorry for myself, and then let down my invisibility spell. Dallas was right there.

"Well damn that's impressive," He commented.

I'd never liked Dallas. Even when he was with Stevie Rae, something about him rubbed me the wrong way. Now that he'd gone to the dark side, tried to kill my best friend (or one of them, anyways) and gone out with that skanky Nicole, I liked him even less. Not to mention the way I felt sick whenever I was around him. It was like Nyx was—holy shit. Dallas was Neferet's little infiltrate.

"I'm all kinds of impressive," I replied, playing right into his act, even plastering a flirtatious smile of my face. Damn, I was going to have to go into acting if I got through this.

"I don't doubt that," he put his hot, heavy hand on my face to stroke hair away from my eyes, and them used the opportunity to run his hand down my neck and close to places I really didn't need Dallas's hands. I swatted his hands away just a tad too venomously, and then covered it up with a flirty giggle. I saw Shaunee slipping into the shadows. Good, let her see and gossip. I hoped she would, then I wouldn't have to deal with talking to them myself. No one would want to talk to me after this.

**I'm cutting it here, for obvious reasons. I wanted to ask what I should do with it. Do you want me to write it and up the rating or do you want me to sort of only have the scene there in Erin thinking after about it. (To clarify to those who didn't half-memorize Hidden, this is the scene where Shaunee's watching Erin strip for Dallas in the fountain.) Half of the dialogue is derived from Hidden, chapters 7 and 8. (The stuff between Shaunee and Erin, and once they were off the bus. Thanks for reading, KShade out.**


	3. Life over pride

**Well, since I have one reviewer (cookies to you!) And I totally agree with you, that was vomit worthy, I'll do a bit of a timeskip thing… Also, this chapter goes out to SmilesSaveLives, because she's amazing!**

"Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'. I can't get you off my mind, girl. You know what water and electricity make when they come together, don't you?" He commented, never looking higher than my neck. I was going to need Damien level adjectives to describe how his look creeped me out. I could call it lecherous, but I wasn't quite sure whether even that word sufficed. I wanted to ask him what my foot and his crotch made, but I had to force myself to stay in character.

"Lightning—that's what electricity and water make. Sounds hot to me." I responded, imagining he was anyone but Dallas. Surely we wouldn't take things any further than flirting. We were on campus, during school hours. Anyone could walk by. I wondered if Shaunee was still there. I snuck a look over there and saw her, standing in the shadows.

"That's because it is hot. You are hot. You're like a sauna, girl—or a steam bath I'd like to soak in." Dallas still didn't look at my face. My face didn't matter to him. Truth be told, I could tell from square one, with him as the informant, things would never be about speaking. I hated it, hated him. I looked up at the sky and begged Nyx to choose someone else. _Anyone else._ Nothing. I was going to have to play my part. I stepped into the water, hoping my element would bring me some sort of strength.

Feeling used , discarded, and all kinds of violated, I sat down on a bench to think about what had—and, fortunately, hadn't—happened. I'd stood in the water, wanting to be reassured by my element. Dallas had followed me. I'd used water for confidence, so I wouldn't hurl all over his feet. Not that I didn't totally want to. The enemy had seen me naked. Completely and utterly naked in that goddamn fountain. Honestly, at the time I was just trying to act like the kind of girl he'd like so he'd tell me what I needed to know and I could be on my merry way.

Clearly, Dallas was not going to be that easy. He just came in after me, just as I was getting really nauseous, and he was taking his belt off, Lenobia saved me. She had the full on angry teacher effect going. Of course, she chewed me out for being indecent and for having no self -respect. I could've kissed her, for saving me from losing my virginity to Dallas in a fountain where everyone could see. I hated that I had to do this, but now I was fucked if I left, because Neferet would still see my mission if I ever got near her and still kill me.

My pride had never been worth my life to me. I wondered how much I'd have to lose before it becomes an equal trade. I got up and walked to the stables, and let loose, allowing Water to just explode out of me and drench this place. I called water to dry me off and went to the funeral. The entire thing was depressing, except watching everyone be shocked when Thanatos announced Kalona as her warrior was kinda funny. I whipped out my phone and stealthily sent a message to Alitheia "today I'm going to see "Information" in Dallas. Not taking the circle." I hoped that was encoded enough.

"May Nyx protect you" she responded, implying that she'd received my message. _I'm going to need it._ I thought to myself, bitterly. Everyone began to dab at their eyes and sob as Shaunee lit the pyre.

_Cold as ice, _I willed myself, _cold as ice_. "You've already cried once, Erin," I whispered "do not start this again." I added, wiping the tears away with my hands. I was selfish though, I was sad about Dragon, but I was crying for myself. I was crying for the hellish task I had at hand. As the fire crackled and the acrid column of smoke rose, I had never felt more cold.

We'd all walked around to the front of the school, and Zoey was sort of lying on Stark's shoulder, murmuring stuff to him as the rest of us stood around and talked. I was watching for Dallas, hoping, again, I could get my duties over with and not have to make any more sacrifices.

"good job with the fire part of Dragon's funeral. I now it's not easy to keep lighting funeral pyres, but you help. You make it get over with faster," Zoey commented

"Thanks. Yeah, we're all sick of funerals. At least before this one we got to watch Dragon enter the Otherworld, but seeing the cats up there on the pyre with him made it especially sad." Shaunee looked teary, but I knew I'd just make it worse if I said something. "Actually, that reminds me," Shaunee continued, turning so she faced me, finally, "Erin, is it cool with you if I move Beelzebub's litter box and stuff to my room? He's been sleeping there most days." She asked, looking like she was pleading with me to not make this as difficult as the rest of our split had been.

_Cold as ice_, I thought. I need to be cold as ice. I shrugged, pointedly not looking at Shaunee, "Yeah, whatever. That litter box smells like shit anyway." I nailed it. My harsh, uncaring tone definitely set Damien off

"Erin, cats don't like to use a dirty litter box. You have to clean it every day," Damien informed me with a frown, glaring a little. I would be pissed too if I had to look after a dog and a cat and my friend can't even clean a litter box.

I snorted. "Not anymore I don't have to," I snapped

Zoey and Stevie Rae went on to talk about how Stevie Rae wished Rephaim was here, when the reporter guy arrived. He had dark hair and eyes that matched, and a nice smile. He was also carrying a satchel. I gave him a quick once over, trying to look bitchy and disinterested, and then decided he could be _perfect_ for Damien.

"Hey there, uh, sorry to interrupt, but I'm looking for the school lobby." He said, and _then _the rest of the group turned around. Well, this was going to be fun.

**So, please review, there'll be updates on a bunch of other stories today.**


End file.
